We are very excited to welcome back DJJ to our mix series. This time he is focussing on the work of Chalino Sánchez and the norteño/ranchero style corridos.
”These songs are mostly unknown to western audiences but his presence and influence in Mexico and even more so in Southern US along with his cult-like status there is undisputed and unmatched in scope. His life and music combine into one of the greatest stories in music in the last decades.
Chalino, who was born Rosalino Sánchez in Sinaloa Mexico 1960 and fled as a young man over the border to US after reportedly killing the rapist of his sister in Sinaloa. Chalino ended up in LA. His life of odd jobs and small time crime, as a drug dealer and smuggler, eventually led him to a prison stint in 1984 where Sánchez really started to sing traditional regional Mexican corridos or ballads.
Sánchez sang praises and the stories and legends of other inmates for money and fun and named his songs after the people the songs depicted. That made him well known in criminal underworld and Chalino continued this path until the very end of his life.
He recorded his first cassettes in the late 1980’s and started to gain underground attention as a singer of ‘narcocorridos’ or ‘corridos prohibidos’, forbidden ballads that told the stories of valientes, drug dealers, murderers, smugglers and revenge.
Chalino’s fame rose even more through a gunfight incident at his concert in city of Coachella in California in 1992 where crowdmember opened fire towards Chalino, who returned fire with his own pistol and started a gunfight that ended up injuring 7 to 10 people and caused one death. Chalino was shot and was rushed to critical surgery and survived. His sales skyrocketed after the shooting was largely reported in US and elsewhere in Spanish speaking world. After the shooting Sanchez was known and recognised as a gangster and started to attract more and more following.
Chalinos life ended only four months later in his home region Sinaloa Mexico when after a highly successful concert his body was found next morning dumped in an irrigation canal, hands tied behind his back and two bullets in the back of his head.
Chalinos brutal death lifted him to immortal cult hero status and countless imitators called ”chalinillos” or little Chalinos have tried to recreate his success ever after.
Chalino’s son Adan became a popular singer too and his early death in 2004 in a mysterious car accident also in Sinaloa, Mexico just added more to his mythos.
Comparisons have been made between Sánchez and Tupac Shakur as they both represent a similar type of idol to a different audience. After his death Sánchez has sold millions of records, his songs streamed hundreds of millions of times and is even called by some, the most influential musician in US of the past 25 years. It’s amazing how little known his music and story is when you get into it.
It seems that his corridos are still prohibited from a mainstream point-of-view.
The tracks I chose here are lifted from three early 1990’s LP’s I acquired from Mexico and they were a part of a collection that was badly damaged by water. I enjoy these kind of stories that connect music and records to places and for me as a collector and enthusiast it adds to the experience. This mix is a small glimpse to his music and story that is so important to many and also showcase the peculiar detail that many of Chalinos records made after his death were using his vocals on top of bands and even duets that he never played with or sung in real life.” -DJ IJJ
This is an original vinyl mix selected by DJ IJJ. Track list is below.
Tracklist:
Chalino Sánchez & Los Amables Del Norte – Florita Del Alma
Chalino Sánchez – Eladio Felix
Chalino Sánchez & Los Amables Del Norte – El Crimen De Culiacan
Chalino Sánchez & Banda Culiacan – Corrido De Badiraguato
Chalino Sánchez – Corazoncito Tirano
Chalino Sanchez & Banda Culiacan – Chuy Luna
Chalino Sánchez & Los Amables Del Norte – Me Persigue Tu Sombra
Chalino Sánchez – Lolo Ramos